


three weeks from tuesday

by thedevilchicken



Category: Marvel Adventures: Avengers
Genre: Didn't Know They Were Dating, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: Tony's pretty sure Steve was joking when he proposed. He's pretty sure it's all just because Spider-Man can't let a good joke drop. But he's determined to find out.





	three weeks from tuesday

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Meatball42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/gifts).

> Written for the tag requests "Everyone thought they were joking about getting married" and "Serious proposal is assumed to be a joke".
> 
> Bear in mind that this really is for MA: A, aka the most internal-conflict-free Avengers canon that has ever existed. ;)

This is possibly the stupidest thing Tony's ever done and that's kinda saying something, given the back catalog of really stupid stuff that Tony's done over the years. Like creating Ultron or jousting with a magic knight or challenging Wolverine to an arm-wrestling match, or that time he messed with Giant-Girl's suit and ended up making his right arm - and _only_ his right arm - grow about as big as a mid-size SUV. Pete was calling him _Iron Hand_ for a month after that. He still has regrets about that. 

But this, well, this is a whole new level of stupid. And nerve-racking. And he has no idea if it's going to pay off, but he figures what the hell, you only live once. Besides, no one's gonna know but him if it all goes sideways. He thinks Steve was joking, but at least this way he'll _know_.

\---

It started three weeks ago, while the Avengers were training in the tower. Wolverine was tearing up the training bots with his claws just like he always did with no regard for their skyrocketing equipment costs, and Pete and Jan were arguing over who got to finish one off - webbing or a giant boot, or maybe a one-two combo of the two, and Hulk was just generally kinda..._smash_. Tony and Steve, on the other hand, were discussing the relative merits of different groups of pizza toppings as they traded Steve's shield back and forth, beating one of the bots six ways from Sunday. It was pretty normal, Tony thought. It was the kind of thing they did at least twice a week, just to keep the shine on the well-oiled machine, except maybe sometimes they talked sports or tech or politics instead of pineapple vs anchovy. 

When they were done, and when they were heading to the door past a pile of disarticulated robot parts, and when Tony was trying not to mentally assess the dent they'd just put into the Avengers' collective bank account, Pete raised his eyebrows at them. It shouldn't've been possible for him to do it while he was wearing the spidey-suit, but Tony had seen his fair share of impossible things. 

"Don't you two ever get tired of kicking our butts?" Pete asked. 

"Nope," Steve replied. He flipped his shield in his hands and glanced at Tony.

"Yeah, no, never," Tony added. He hit the training room release button and they made their way outside, toward the elevators.

"Maybe next time Iron Man should work with Wolverine," Pete said. 

"So he can forget I'm not a bot and wreck my suit like he did last time?"

Pete jabbed the button for the penthouse. "Hey, he only did that once," he said.

"Twice."

"Dude, the second time your armor was kinda being hijacked by Ultron. That totally doesn't count." 

Tony shrugged. He guessed that wasn't technically inaccurate, but Logan really had seemed to enjoy it. 

"So you'll think about it?" Pete asked.

"Now, I didn't say that." 

"Spoilsport." 

"Besides, we like working together." Tony nudged Steve in the ribs with his elbow.

"Sure, when you're not flying me around like cargo," Steve replied. "I hate to have to remind you but I was never in the Air Force."

Steve grinned. Tony laughed. And Pete's impossible masked brows rose impossibly higher. "Y'know, you two should just go get married," he said. 

Steve chuckled. "What do you say, Tony?" he asked. "You finally going to make an honest man out of me?"

Tony grinned. "Sure," he replied. "I've got a half hour free at ten-thirty, three weeks from Tuesday. Meet you at the courthouse?"

"Sure thing. It's a date." 

Then the elevator doors slid open on the Avengers' penthouse floor of Stark Tower and all three of them went their separate ways.

And Tony really didn't think about it till later, when he was in the lab tinkering with his armor, but then it occurred to him: maybe it had been a joke but actually, it was the best offer he'd had in years. 

\---

Over the next few days, he tried not to think about it. Maybe he would've even succeeded if Peter Parker hadn't been around. The beauty of being full-time Avengers was they were always ready; the downside was they were always together.

"Hey, I guess I should let you guys sit together," Pete said at breakfast the next morning, and he shifted really, really obviously to leave the seat next to Steve free for Tony to sit down in. "Y'know. Now you're betrothed and all." 

Tony rolled his eyes and sat down. Logan had eaten all the fricking sausages again, and half the bacon, but Steve shared his with him. And when Storm asked what Pete was talking about, Steve glanced at him then glanced at her and said, "Well, I might've proposed."

"Did you get down on one knee?" Jan asked. 

"Not exactly," Steve replied. 

"Then it totally doesn't count." 

"There's a rule about that?"

She shrugged. "Only if you care about romance, I guess." 

"I'll remember that the next time I ask a genius superhero billionaire for his hand in matrimony," Steve said. He flashed Jan a smile and gave Tony a wink. "After all, I wouldn't want him to think I don't care." 

Honestly, as dumb as it seemed, Tony kinda found himself wishing Steve _would_ care.

The next night, while they were watching a movie on the couch, Pete popped up again as if from nowhere. Tony guessed it made sense; the guy was part spider, part photojournalist.

"Wow, guys," he said, perching like a parrot on the back of the couch and ruffling both their hair. "I've seen planets closer together. Anyone would think this engagement's some kind of sham!"

Steve snorted and the next thing Tony knew, he had one of Steve's thighs pressed against his and Steve's arm behind him on the back of the couch, mercifully displacing Spider-Jerk. And actually, it felt kinda nice. And actually, when Pete disappeared back to wherever it was he'd come from (Tony's bet was Skyping his Aunt May), Steve didn't move away again. Tony really couldn't say he minded that.

A couple of days later, mid-fight against a bunch of Ultron's metallic minions, Spidey struck again. 

"Hey, I was thinking," he called, swinging by from the warehouse's rafters on the end of a web. 

"That sounds dangerous," Tony called back. "Are you sure you want to be doing that?"

"Ha ha, Iron Ham. Laugh it up." Pete booted a bot in the face and then somersaulted to the ground; Tony blasted it with his repulsors and Steve slammed the rim of his shield down, hard. The bot fizzled. Pete nudged it with his toe and all the lights went out, but it wasn't like that was the end of it.

"I was thinking," Pete said. He gave them both a pointed look, which was somehow even more effective with the mask on than without it, then shot a web and sprung back up into the air. Tony watched. "Neither of you has an engagement ring," Pete called down as he was towed away by another bot. "Tell me, now does that seem right?"

Six more of Ultron's bots later, they boarded the Quinjet and flew back to the tower, but Ultron lived to fight another day. Six hours later, Tony emailed Steve a shiny rendered CAD file of a ring in fetching red and gold. Twenty minutes after that, while Tony was getting changed for bed, Steve shoved a sheet of paper in under his bedroom door; the ring he'd sketched was...extremely patriotic. Tony couldn't help but laugh. He folded up the sketch and tucked it into the fold of his wallet, just in case he needed a pick-me-up.

It went on like that for days - weeks - and Pete really didn't seem to tire of it but then Tony guessed he didn't, either. It was kind of fun, acting how they always did except..._more_. Once or twice, they held hands where Pete could see on the way down to the practice room, at least as well as they could with Steve's gloves and Tony's armor in the way. Once or twice, Tony sat down on Steve's lap at the dining table with one of his arms around Steve's shoulders and one of Steve's arms around his waist. Once or twice, he put his hand on Steve's thigh while they were chatting over a movie. Once or twice, Pete wolf-whistled at the two of them and made Steve grin. 

"Y'know, I've never seen you guys hug," Pete said, early in the second week. Tony figured what the hell; he wrapped his arms around Steve, suits and all, and squeezed him tight. He couldn't help but think it would've been better without the armor in the way, but that really wasn't part of the deal.

"Y'know, I've never seen you guys kiss," Pete said, late in the second week. Tony figured what the hell; he popped his visor and planted a great big smacking kiss on Steve's right cheek. It maybe wasn't quite what Pete had meant, though, and Tony knew it. Honestly, it turned out he wanted the thing he knew Pete meant, too. It turned out he'd wanted it for years.

"Hey, Tony?" Pete said, early in the third week. "Can I have your room when the two of you get hitched?"

"Who says I'm moving into his?" Tony asked. "Maybe I like mine. Or maybe he snores." 

"And how would you know?" Pete replied, brows raised. The Spidey-suit really did that better than his real brows did, or at least ten times more dramatically. "Have you ever even been inside his room?"

Tony looked at Steve. Steve looked at Tony. Forty minutes later, when they turned in for the night, Tony went with Steve into his bedroom. And okay, sure, maybe they were taking it too far for some dumb running gag, but Tony borrowed a t-shirt to change into and they slept side by side in Steve's king-size bed. The weird thing was how _not_ weird it was - they just talked in the dark till they fell asleep, the back of Tony's hand brushing Steve's. 

In the morning, that was when Tony really knew he had a problem. Steve looked great to him even lying there with bed hair and his t-shirt all rucked up underneath his arms, and that wasn't the worst of it; the fact was, he was pretty sure he could get used to it.

\---

If this isn't the stupidest thing Tony's ever done then at the very least it's the stupidest thing he's done in years. Stupider than playing human chess with Galactus or that time he and Pete spoke to each other exclusively in movie quotes for the best part of five weeks before he misquoted _Top Gun_ and reluctantly had to admit defeat. It had turned out Steve was better at it than either of them anyway, and Captain America quoting _Mean Girls_ while they beat up a bunch of goons-for-hire kinda made his week. 

Three weeks ago, Spider-Man made some off-the-cuff joke that they've all been keeping up for weeks. It started out almost funny, like a Kick Me sign on Wolverine's back or the time a guy whose only special skill in life was moderate competence in the use of a lasso tried to take down him and Cap. It started out funny, but then Tony realized it kinda wasn't. Tony realized Steve snored but he could live with it. He realized maybe there's a reason they're always on each other's team.

It's ten-thirty in the morning three weeks from Tuesday. He's standing in the courthouse, in a suit but not _the_ suit because somehow that didn't seem appropriate if Doombots weren't tearing off the roof. He's pretty sure Steve won't show and he's telling himself to leave, but then the door opens. His heart leaps. He'd feel kinda foolish for that except the guy who opened is really familiar.

"Hey," Steve says. He's wearing a suit but not _the_ suit. There's no stars and stripes or cute little head-wings anywhere in sight. Except...no, because his cufflinks are little flags. They're the ones Tony got him last fourth of July.

"Hey," Tony replies. "You left the shield at home." 

"Well, it really didn't seem appropriate if War Walkers weren't tearing down the walls," Steve says. 

Tony grins. He takes Steve's hands. He squeezes, and Steve squeezes back. 

"Ready?" Tony says. He produces a red-and-gold ring from his pocket.

"Tony, I've been ready since three weeks ago," Steve replies. The ring he fishes out is blue and red, and stars and stripes.

This might be the stupidest thing Tony's ever done, but he guesses now he knows. They've been friends for years. Somewhere along the way, they veered off the beaten path into something else. As the judge arrives, neither of them has anyplace else to be but here.

Nobody's going to believe this, Tony thinks, except maybe for Pete. And honestly? He's not sure Pete didn't know it better than they did.


End file.
